What is a cluster

HPC

A computing cluster is a group of connected computers (called nodes) that work together as a single system to perform tasks more efficiently.

The GAIA/HELIOS cluster is an on-premises cluster of computer systems that enables large-scale computations that cannot be done with regular computer systems. The cluster makes it possible to perform computational tasks that require extremely large amounts of working memory, CPU and GPU, among other things.

General use cases

1. Many computations? Let the cluster run them in parallel.
2. Long-running jobs? Run them on the cluster to keep your computer free.
3. Large or many datasets? The cluster can analyze them faster.
4. Heavy computations? The cluster can distribute them over multiple cores or machines.

Operation system

Linux

All compute clusters run on Linux, so you will need to get comfortable working with it. The main hurdle is that you will access the cluster primarily through a command-line interface. In this interface, you type commands that the cluster will execute remotely, and you get your results back as plain text. However, OpenOnDemand is also available, providing a web-based interface for easier file management and interactive applications when needed.